In this dimension or the next
by nightfuryperson
Summary: Short drabble that takes place after 'Buried Secrets'. Brotherly fluff. Please R&R!


**Okay, so I got this idea a few days after "Buried Secrets", and I just had to get it out. Short brotherly fluff moment, it might be a little OOC. Hope you guys enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own TMNT.**

Donnie sighed as he stretched his arms. It was late into the night, probably about midnight. Man, Leo was going to kill him when he found out… _if _he found out. Don surveyed his work, and after being satisfied that everything was complete enough to not be destroyed by some freak accident (Raph and Mikey having another hay- bale fight for example), he stood up and yawned. As he made his way to the slightly open barn door to go to the house and, more importantly, bed, he noticed a shadow on a far corner of the barn. Donnie frowned, all thoughts of sleep leaving. He debated over going to wake the others as he crept forward, drawing his Bo, but he figured that the house was close enough for them to hear him if he yelled for a last minute rescue. He pushed himself up against the side of the stall, took a deep breath, then jumped out to face the enemy. His look of determination melted into one of confusion when he saw none other than Mikey standing next to the medical supplies. The other terrapin had one end of a bandage roll in his mouth, part of the cloth wrapped around his arm, and the other hand holding the actual roll was pulled back, as if the wrappings would actually serve as an effective weapon if he had actually been attacked. They stayed like that for a few seconds, neither moving. Mikey was the first to break the silence. He quickly unwrapped the bandage and positioned his arm awkwardly so that Donnie couldn't see one side. He then turned his attention to the bandages, turning them over in his hands. "Mm hm… mm hm… yeah! These'll do great! So… goodnight!" He tried to worm his way past his older brother, but was stopped by a hand to his plastron. "Whoa whoa whoa wise guy, you're not going anywhere. What happened to your arm?"

"What happened to my arm?" Mikey parroted nervously. "Um… you see, I, uh, was going for a walk with Ice-cream Kitty, you know how much she loves the forest and stuff, and then we were, um, a-attacked by this, uhhh, 40 foot elf, yeah yeah! And then-" He stopped short when he saw the deadpan look he was receiving form his older brother. He wracked his brain for another excuse. "I... fell down the stairs."

Donnie didn't even blink.

"Alright, _fine_." Mikey pouted, then muttered something under his breath. "What was that?" Donnie asked. Mikey said it again, a little louder, but still unintelligible. Don huffed, rolling his eyes. "C'mon Mike, just spit it out and get it over with."

"Okay oaky. Sheesh. It's.. just a scrape I got. In the woods."

"And how exactly did you get this scrape?" Donnie said, pulling his brother's arm closer to get a better look. Worry worked its way into his features. The wound was pretty deep, so bandages alone wouldn't help all that much. He'd need stitches. "Well," Mikey began, gnawing at his lip a bit. Donnie noticed with some confusion that he looked almost embarrassed. " you know I got into that fight with April's mom… mutant thing?" Donnie nodded, gently leading his brother over to a hay pile, before going over to the supplies to pick out what he needed. "She had a pair of scissors with her then" Mikey continued. "I got rid of them for her pretty quick, but I thought I felt them graze my arm. Apparently they grazed deeper than I thought. I didn't even notice it until a little while ago. The slime must have gotten in and messed with it or somethn'." He finished, eyeing the things his brother was carrying warily. "Y' know D, I could just do it myself. I'm used to that."

"No Mikey, you need stitches. It'd be easier if y- what do you mean you're used to it?" Mikey looked up at Don sheepishly. "Well, you remember how I always used to get hurt 'n stuff when we were kids? And then I would have to go to you guys to patch me up? I… I overheard you talking one day, about how annoying it was getting, so I just taught myself how to do some stuff after that. The basics. See? I've even cleaned this one already." He held out the wound for Donnie to see. Yes, the wound was cleaned, but that wouldn't help unless the gash was secured tighter. It was enough to prevent major infection at the least. Don opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it as he began to try threading the needle. This would explain why Mikey was always the most susceptible to illness of all of them. Don grinned in triumph as the thread slipped through the eye. He looked back up at his brother. "Look, Mike, I know that we seem to get mad at you all the time, but we're you're brothers. You don't have to hide this stuff from us. When we were complaining about it back then, we wanted it to happen less, not for you to just have to patch up yourself. We don't like seeing you get hurt that much, you know."

"Yeah, yeah." Mikey muttered not looking very convinced. His eyes widened suddenly as Donnie positioned the needle by the wound. "Um, Donnie what are you doing with that?"

"I already told you, I have to stitch this up. It won't heal right otherwise."

"Th- that's okay. Raph says scars are cool."

"Yeah, well news flash: Raph's an idiot. Honestly, this isn't your first time getting them. Just hold still. If it hurts too much then tell me."

"Okay… GAH! Donnie stop it hurts!"

"Shhhhh!" Donnie hissed, clamping a free hand over his brother's mouth. He craned his neck to see if any lights turned on in the house. When he was sure everyone was still asleep, he turned back to his brother in exasperation. "I didn't even start you moron!"

"Yeah,well… you were thinking about it."

"Of course I was thinking about it! I was- uggh. Just hold still." He slowly started his work, watching the other's expression carefully. Mikey's eyes were screwed shut for a short time, but he opened them eventually. Donnie finished his work quickly, wrapping Mikey's arm up in the bandages he had tried to escape with earlier. After making sure everything was secure, he sat back and looked up. "So, what's bothering you?" Mikey's eyes widened. "Um, nothing, why?" Donnie rolled his eyes. "Mikey, you're good at a lot of things." Mikey's face brightened. "But lying isn't one of them." Mikey blinked, then scowled at his older brother. "Don't give me that look. You know it's true. So, tell me." The younger terrapin fidgeted nervously under his gaze. "It's stupid." He muttered. "Well in that case it wouldn't matter if you told me anyway. You people tell me stupid things all the time." Mikey's eyes flickered nervously between Don and the floor. "It's just that…"

"Yeah?" Mikey stared glumly at the wall. "Why don't you guys trust me at all?" Donnie blinked. "What do you-"

" I mean I know that I prank you guys a lot and I love to mess around but I do try to be serious about some stuff, especially if I'm sure I'm right."

"Mike-"

"And that's why I went out into the woods earlier; to prove it. You know, just to bring back something that would convince you that I'm right. But then I saw her trying to pollute the water and I knew she was way worse than I thought and I knew I had to do something and-"

"Mikey calm down, you-"

"And I didn't have time to go get you guys and I was way too freaked out to even think about that then, so I just attacked. Gah, but Donnie she was so much better than I thought she would be, a-and then she started to change- the tentacles started coming out-t-t."

"Slow down Mikey, it's-" Mikey whipped around to look directly at his brother, and Donnie's heart staggered when he saw the tears glistening in his baby brother's eyes. "I sc-screamed but no one hea- r- rd me. And I kn-know that we've faced way worse than her before, but we we-were t-to-together then, and God Donnie I was scared. I was so sc-scared. " He broke off at the end, the tears soaking into his mask. He started to pull his head into his shell, embarrassed for seeming so weak in front of his older brother. "Aw, Mikey," Donnie breathed, horrified at himself for not noticing how unsettled the younger one had been. A small whimper brought him out of his trance, and in the blink of an eye he had himself wrapped around his baby brother, pulling him as close as he could without hurting him. Mikey struggled weakly against him at first, trying to speak through his choked sobs, but Donatello only shushed him, swaying slightly back and forth to try and help calm him. After a few moments, he gave in, burying his head into his older brother's plastron, trying to keep his shaking and sobbing to a minimum. Donnie gently rubbed his arm, nuzzled his temple, anything to try and provide comfort, occasionally freeing one arm to reach up and wipe away the tears. "Shhh… it's okay Mike, you're safe now, we all are."

"Y-yeah, but I w-w-was so su-su-sure then that I-I…was g-gonna die an-n-d th-the las-st thing I w-would re-mem-b-ber would be-e all of you-u h-hating m-me." Donnie shoved Mikey back at arm's length, startling the younger terrapin so much that he stopped crying for a few moments, eyes watery and bottom lip trembling. Don's determined and concerned brown eyes locked with Mikey's uncharacteristically dull blue ones. Time after time he had loathed the bright gleam that would appear in them every few minutes, knowing that meant that there was going to be yet another new mess to clean up once he had carried out whatever new plan he had just cooked up. Now he felt like he would do just about anything to make him have that look right now. "Mikey, listen to me, I know that we get mad at you a lot and we seem to write you off all the time, but even though you annoy the shell out of us, you're our baby brother, and nothing, I mean _nothing_, in this dimension or the next will _ever_ make us stop loving you, okay?" Mikey shakily nodded his head, trying to hold back the new onslaught of tears. "Come here, bro." Donnie muttered, pulling his brother closer again. Mikey nestled his face in Don's neck, slowly processing everything that his brother has just said. After a few more minutes Mikey had calmed down, but the two stayed the way they were, trying to make the most of this rare moment of closeness. "So… did you r-really mean that?" Donnie smiled softly, pulling his brother a little closer. "Of course I did bro."

"Even for Raph?" Donnie laughed at that, pressing his cheek against the others forehead. "Yeah, especially for Raph." Mikey grinned, curling up more against his older brother, eyes drooping from exhaustion. "Thanks, D." He breathed as he drifted off. "Love ya' too." Donnie pulled back to look at his now peacefully asleep brother, scowling when his own fatigue came back. '_Even when he's asleep he knows how to make things difficult._' He thought, even as he smirked endearingly down at the younger terrapin. He was too tired to carry them both back to the house, well, not without making a lot of noise anyway, and if they stayed in the barn, someone might come in and see them. Don was fairly sure that neither of them would ever live that down. After a minute or so of internal debating, he sighed, gently shuffling them both closer to the back corner of the stall, before laying down in the hay and closing his eyes. "Nobody comes into the barn in the morning anyway."

-(Line Break)-

Leo smiled as he gently pulled the barn door shut. "So I'm guessing that you're not going to chew him out for staying up so late?" Raph asked as his older brother turned to him. "Nah, why bother? I knew he would anyway." He started back to the house, glancing behind him when he realized that he wasn't being followed. "You coming Raph?" Raph sighed as he stared at the barn door. "Maybe we shouldn't have been so hard on him." He started a bit when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Well, we know now, so we just have to try and keep it in mind for the future." Leo gave him a reassuring smile. "Come on, let's get inside." He slung an arm over his brother's shoulder, smile widening when he felt the same being done to him. After a few moments of silence Raph piped up. "So…what did Don mean by '_especially_' me?"

"Raph, please. _Everyone_ knows that you're the softest of us all." Raph stopped in his tracks, face heating up as he watched Leo walk up the steps to the porch and through the open door. He blinked once, then twice. "Ohh, if you weren't injured you would be _so_ dead right now." He growled, marching after his brother and then shutting the door.

**So, what do you think? It's my first attempt at fluff. Please review! No flames. :P**


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